Heron Lake native Hobie Hedquist made his first unofficial start for the fourth-ranked University of North Dakota men’s hockey team and played all 62 minutes in the Fighting Hawks 4-3 overtime exhibition loss to the USA Hockey National Team Development Program under-18 team.
Hedquist made 19 saves.
"I thought he made some good saves," UND coach Brad Berry told the Grand Forks Herald. "He didn't have a lot of workload early. Later on, he did. I thought he made some good saves. For his first game in, I thought he did a good job."
It was Hedquist's second appearance in an exhibition game at Ralph Engelstad Arena. He played 25:52 in UND's preseason game vs. the University of Manitoba, but only saw three shots in that game.
Hedquist made back-to-back saves in overtime on USA's leading goal-scorer, Cole Eiserman, a projected top-five pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. He also stopped Brodie Ziemer on a partial breakaway and Shane Vansaghi, who was alone on top of the crease in the first period.
Eiserman had committed to Minnesota but decommitted and is now committed to Boston University, Ziemer is committed to Minnesota and Vansaghi is committed to Michigan State.
North Dakota (12-5-1) hosts Alaska in a pair of nonconference games next weekend before opening its National Collegiate Hockey Conference schedule at home vs. Omaha the following weekend.